Despite his penchant for understatement — some would say secrecy — New Jersey businessman and philanthropist Ray Chambers was selected by Time magazine as one of its 100 most influential people in the world, it was revealed today.

Time’s website describes those on the list as "artists and activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry."

The magazine had earlier confirmed two other New Jerseyans, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Gov. Chris Christie, as being on the list. Also selected: Lisa Jackson, the former commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection during the Corzine administration and now head of the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook was also cited by Time magazine. Earlier this year he promised Booker a $100 million donation to help the city’s faltering schools.

Chambers, a private equity investor and one of the owners of the New Jersey Devils hockey team, was instrumental in the building of two Newark landmarks, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Prudential Center, but it’s his work with Malaria No More that is garnering him accolades and media attention.

The nonprofit company he co-founded with Peter Chernin, formerly president of News Corp., has raised $5 billion since its inception in 2006. Through the purchase of insecticide-treated, anti-malarial bed nets, Chambers and Chernin are seeking to eradicate the deadly disease by 2015.

"Ray Chambers has provided truly inspiring leadership in the effort to reverse the course of malaria and I applaud Time magazine for recognizing his effort," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a statement released today.

In 2008, Chambers, 68, was appointed Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Malaria. He has made dozens of visits to Africa on behalf of Malaria No More and says that by the end of this summer, "we will have covered everyone at risk — 700 million people — with bed nets."

Already, Chambers reports, 14 countries in Africa have seen malarial deaths decline by more than 50 percent.

"Nothing like this has ever been done with a major disease in such a short period of time," he said.

A mosquito-borne disease, malaria killed more than 780,000 people in 2009, according to the World Health Organization, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

"When I first met Ray I was inspired by his quiet dignity, steely determination and wealth of ideas," said Chernin, who is also chairman of Malaria No More. "I am personally grateful for his leadership and honored to call him my friend."

While Chambers anticipates continued dramatic declines in malarial deaths, he says there are plenty of other problems to attack. As co-founder of Millennium Promise Alliance, another nonprofit organization, he contributes to the global wars on poverty, hunger and malnutrition and poor education.